Our heart continues to grow as we journey with Ally at school. Our hearts attach ourselves to this young girl immediately. Her father has been deployed and her grandfather, whom she was very close with recently died.

She has a very loving mother… But she needs to work long hours - at an ice cream store- and is not home as much as she wishes.Īlly has a wonderful older brother but he is living his life. It’s completely robbed her of her self worth. She feels hopeless.Īlly has been sent to the principal’s office so many times in her young years. Syndrome.( the wiggly letters that move on the page are an indicator). And probably a controversial diagnosis called Irlen The letters on the page wiggle and give her headaches.

She has fooled teachers -year after year. The sixth grader is a whiz at math, a terrific little artist, and has a priceless imagination. “Living in a world of impossible things like in ‘Alice in wonderland’.in a world where nothing makes sense makes perfect sense to Ally. For those reasons, I am grateful for this story, and I hope it continues to teach children understanding and empathy. This book allowed my daughter's peers to understand a little bit of what she goes through to learn, and it helped my daughter understand that she isn't stupid (which I had told her time and time again). It is only though having attentive and dedicated parents/caregivers who insist on answers, a very observant teacher, and/or a school district with the means to help students do children finally get diagnosed and taught in a way that allows them to actually learn.

And getting that diagnosis and the help she needed was truly life-changing, just like it was for the main character in this book.įor those of you out there reading this book who think that it's unrealistic that a kid could make it to 6th grade without being diagnosed, you are wrong. She felt seen for the first time because she had just been diagnosed officially with dyslexia a few weeks before. My daughter's class read Fish in a Tree when she was in 4th grade, and she was beyond excited. It's extremely hard for me to review this book objectively because it has a lot of personal meaning for me.

Fish in a tree by lynda mullaly hunt